Try as they might, Tom Simpkin, James Gwilt, Sean Dempster, Rhys Stanley, Jackson Ferguson and Jason Blake all proved unable to consistently nullify football's monsters, with bags of goals to the likes of Jack Riewoldt, Lance Franklin and Kurt Tippett a frequent reminder of the much-maligned Dawson's absence.

It was a problem not lost on former Saints coach Scott Watters, who in successive seasons attempted to lure West Coast's Mitch Brown back to Melbourne to fill the void.

"We can't be a club now that just sits around, hoping that a key defender turns up. We need to be very aggressive about making sure we fill that gap," Watters said last June.

Watters didn't survive long enough at the helm to see his plan carried out, but St Kilda did manage to secure the services of Kangaroo Luke Delaney to help address the woes down back.

Delaney performed solidly in last week's win over Melbourne, but a Demons side without Chris Dawes, Jesse Hogan or Mitch Clark is not much of a litmus test, and with Jack Fitzpatrick sustaining an injury mid-game, the new Saint stopper went largely unchallenged.

Saturday's game against the Giants, however, provides a much sterner assignment, with the twin towers of Jeremy Cameron and JonathonPatton coming to town. The pair combined for seven goals against the Swans two weeks ago, and caused headaches for the Saints a month ago during a pre-season game in Wagga Wagga.

As an early chance to see if the Achilles heel of 2012 and 2013 has been remedied by the addition of Delaney, round two will be highly informative for new St Kilda coach Alan Richardson.